Terror of Irony
by MadreLoca
Summary: Seth and Molly Sunderland are stranded in Silent Hill.  Their daughter Rebecca is missing.  When Seth and Molly get separated, they must search for Becky and each other.  In their search, they find deep, dark secrets: secrets of Silent Hill, each other, and themselves.
1. Origins

**Title** The Terror of Irony

**Summary** Pain givers and receivers on both sides of the line are blurred and intermingled in this, fates strange design.

**Rating** M. for pretty much everything Silent Hill is famous for. You played the games and hopefully saw the movie, so you'll be fine.

**Comments** The reason I say you hopefully saw the movie is this - Starting in chapter six, we start seeing Alessa and Dahlia lurking around. This is the Alessa and Dahlia from the movie, not from games _1_, _3_ and _Origins_. Why? I just liked the movie version of their story better and it better fit what I'm trying to do with the overall point or dare I say "moral" to the story. The family itself ties into the second game sense SH2 has virtually nothing to do with the "game" version of Alessa and James saw Pyramid Head.

_**Edit:**_ Okay, so I have done some revamping and I changed my chapter titles. I also realized that I was actually getting the last name wrong (cut me some slack,it's been FOREVER sense I played SH2) I had been saying "Sutherland" instead of "Sunderland" as in James Sunderland.

_**Chapter One**_

_**Origins**_

…_..._

_Did you have that dream again?  
Release...  
Breathe...  
You're receiving what you said  
Said she  
Never mind  
Emptiness, dead eyes and lost what you found_

…_..._

_The little girl huddles in the cobweb covered corner of nearly pitch-black room. She shakes with terror - or is it just the walls that shake with every heavy footstep of the monster? She drops the tattered stuffed toy rabbit she is clutching and covers her ears with her dirty hands as the horrific, ear-piercing screeching and earth-shaking stomping grows louder and louder as it comes closer and closer to the door that is hanging just slightly ajar. It can not be shut. It has no doorknob._

_Screech. Stomp. _

_Screech. Stomp. _

_Screech. Stomp. _

_Screech. Stomp. _

_Silence. _

_A silence that is even more frightening than the noise thickens the air that fills the little grill's lungs, making it almost impossible to breath. So she stops breathing. She holds her breath as she watches with widening eyes as the door slowly creaks open. The sight of the monster forces her to release her captive breath in a bloodcurdling scream._

_Screech. Stomp. _

_Screech. Stomp. _

_Screech. Stomp. _

_Screech. Stomp. _

_Her screams do not slow the monster's approach. They, in fact, seem to encourage him to move in for the kill. The monster stops close enough for the girl to reach out and touch him, not that she would want to. The little girl releases one last dying scream._

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"

Ten year old Rebecca Sunderland awoke with a high scream that hurt even her own ears. She grabbed Winslow, her giant used-to-be-white teddy bear, by the arm and bolted through her open bedroom door and down the hallway.

Rebecca's parents, Seth and Molly, were already awake and on their way to go check on their daughter when she swung open their door.

"-"

Molly knelt down and wrapped her arms around her terrified daughter. "Shh, sweetheart, it's okay. It's just a dream, Becky."

Rebecca sniffled as she began to cry. "Don't call me 'Becky' Mom. It makes me sound like a baby."

"I'm sorry, Rebecca." Molly sighed and looked up at her husband, who was wearing a panicked expression.

"What was it about this time, Rebecca?" Seth asked.

"It was..It.." Rebecca tried to explain through her tears. "It's always the same thing. It's the man with a triangle for a head. He has a big sword he's trying to get me but I always wake up first."

"Shit," Seth muttered under his breath.

Molly quickly stood up and grabbed Seth's hand. "Honey..." She didn't have to finish the sentence. He understood.

"Sweetheart," Seth said to Rebecca, "Your mom and I need to go talk for a minute. You just lie down in our bed right now."

"You mean I can sleep with you tonight?"

"Yes, sweetheart. Now go lie down, okay."

Molly shut the door half way when they were both in the hall. "Honey, she's had that dream almost every night for the past two weeks. She's getting worse."

"Four nights in a row, for sure," Seth confirmed. "Has she seen any horror movies or-"

"She said she'd never seen it before she started having those dreams a few months ago."

"Well there's no way she could have just imagined that thing she describes. It had to come from somewhere."

"I don't know. All I do know is that we need to call your brother again."

Seth put up his hand. "No, Molly. James is just encouraging her."

"You and I both know that he is the only one who can calm Rebecca. She went almost three weeks without a nightmare last time she talked to him."

"Hm," Seth grunted. He looked into his wife's pleading eyes and knew that she was right. Something about talking to James made Rebecca seem to forget all about the nightmares for a while. Even though he was angry with himself for not being able to help his own daughter, and at James for doing what he could not, Seth had to do what was best for his daughter. "Fine," Seth surrendered.

When Molly and Seth opened the door, they were both relieved to find that Rebecca was sound asleep, seemingly peacefully. They looked at each other and smiled. Carefully, they both layed down on either side of their daughter facing her. Just as suddenly as they had awoken, they both fell asleep.

Seth woke up to the sound of light footsteps. He opened his eyes to see Rebecca out of bed. "What are you doing, Sweetheart?"

"I'm thirsty," she said, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"Okay." Seth closed his eyes and was almost immediately back asleep. Rebecca reached for the doorknob. She stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes widened and she rubbed her eyes again. It did not change what she saw.

Or what she didn't see.

She opened the door and ran down the hallway, stopping at the door to the bathroom. It was the same in the bathroom. Rebecca ran the rest of the length of the hallway to her own bedroom, and once again, it was the same.

Every single doorknob in the house was missing.

_It could not be shut. It had no doorknob._

Rebecca felt as if some darkness was overpowering her, some evil force that she could not control invading her very being.

Rebecca screamed.


	2. Tender Sugar

**Chapter Two**

**Tender Sugar**

…...

_And all these nightmares I once had as a child  
The morning always came, it came too late  
What did my mind forget, forget to hide  
Could the nightmare be awake? _

…...

None of them went back to sleep that night. It wasn't just a dream this time. Molly stayed up comforting Rebecca, who was shaking with fear, while Seth turned the house upside down and inside out in a desperate search for the missing doorknobs. It was not just the ones upstairs that had disappeared, but upon a full search of the house Seth discovered that all the doorknobs in the entire house were gone, even on the doors to the outside.

"He took them!" Rebecca cried repeatedly. "The man with the triangle for a head took them all!"

"Sweetheart," Molly tried to assure her daughter, "That monster isn't real."

"Yes he is!" she protested. "If he isn't real, who took the doorknobs?"

Molly and Seth looked at each other with expressions that crossed surprised, confused, and a bit of "she's got a point."

"He took them!" she cried out again. "He wants to make sure we can't lock him out so he can come and get us!"

Seth made a frustrated sigh. "Well then why didn't your damn monster just go ahead and 'get us' while he was collecting doorknobs?"

"Seth!" Molly exclaimed, "Don't talk to her like that. She's terrified, and frankly so am I."

Seth let out a frustrated breath. "How can doorknobs just up and vanish, Molly?"

"I don't know, but they did."

No one said anything else for a while. Rebecca kept crying in Molly's arms while Seth continued a fruitless hunt for doorknobs.

"Can we call Uncle James?" Rebecca asked when she calmed down.

"Not yet," Seth said, "It's still not even seven in the morning in Washington state." James had moved to Washington several years ago, ambiguously saying that he wanted to be as far away as possible from his "special place with Marry".

Molly interjected, "You know your brother, Seth. James has always been an early riser. If he's not up yet he soon will be."

Seth gave in. "Alright, you can call Uncle James now."

Rebecca sprung up from the couch, ran to the phone and quickly dialed the number. Molly and Seth went in to the kitchen so she could be alone.

"Hello?" came a groggy voice on the other end of the line.

"Did I wake you up, Uncle James?"

"Hi, Rebecca. No I just woke up a few minutes ago. What are you doing up? It must be almost three in the morning in Maryland right now."

"I had that dream again."

There was silence on the line for almost a full minute. James broke the silence when he said, "Rebecca, I know you have told me about it before, but I want you to describe it all again. Tell me about the room first, then the monster."

"The room looks like rusted metal," she began. "And everything looks like it's painted in blood. And the whole floor is like on big floor vent with fire under it. And then the monster comes in. It's always the same. It's the man with a triangle for a head. And he has a huge sword that he drags and it makes a really bad sound like when my teacher writes on the chalkboard. And then he tries to get me but I always wake up first."

Once again silence filled the phone line.

"Let me talk to your dad, okay baby?"

"Okay," Rebecca put the phone on the coffee table. "Dad," she said while running to the kitchen, "Uncle James wants to talk to you."

"Hey, bro," Seth said when he picked up the phone.

"Seth, I think it's time I told you something. Remember how I said I was moving because I wanted to get away from Virginia?"

"Uh, your special place with your wife or whatever, yeah."

"Well, you need to know at least part of the story. I went back to this town called Silent Hill a few years after Marry died. In that town I..." James hesitated. "I saw the monster that Rebecca has been dreaming about."

Seth almost dropped the phone. "WHAT!"

"He lives to torment and torture. He-"

Seth interrupted, "Wait, you mean this...this thing actually exists?"

"Look, I don't know exactly who or what it he is. He may not exist but I swear to you this creature is very real."

"You're not making any fucking sense, James, but I don't really give a shit. All I need to know is what does it want with my daughter!"

"I told you, he lives to torment. He doesn't need a reason."

Seth sighed. "You've been nothing but riddles sense I got on the phone. Hell, you've been talking in riddles sense Mary died, so for once you had better give me a straight answer to one question. Is my daughter safe?"

"As long as he stays in her dreams, then she's probably fine."

Seth muttered "probably" under his breath and shook his head. But then he stopped for a moment and wondered out loud. "What if it's not just dreams anymore. What if this...this thing becomes real?"

"What are you talking about?" James asked desperately.

"In the room Rebecca dreams about the doorknob is missing from the door. Well, she got up this morning to get a drink and..." Seth hesitated, "...every doorknob in the house was gone without a trace."

"You guys need to get out of that house. Now!"


	3. Your Rain

**Chapter Three**

**Your Rain**

…_..._

_On the sidewalk of the city are my screams just a whisper  
Busy people going nowhere see me soak in the rain  
No compassion, nothing matters, my resistance is waiting  
Like a flower in the basement waiting for a lonely death _

…_..._

_One month later_

The old house at 21 West Pyramid Drive was nearly empty as the movers loaded the last of the Sunderland's belongings into the truck. Rebecca stood outside and tightly clutched her teddy bear Winslow as she looked up to the window of her bedroom.

"I miss Rosewood already. I don't have any friends in Charleston."

Molly knelt beside her daughter and put her hand on her shoulder. "I know moving's hard. I had to make a big change when I was about your age. But you'll make new friends just like I did. And you got everyone's e-mail, right?"

Rebecca nodded, afraid that speaking would open the floodgates for her tears.

"Good. That means you can still talk to them all the time."

"Molly, Rebecca," Seth called to his two favorite women from the curb in the driver's seat of their red Suburban.

The two of them quickly got up and got into the van. Molly looked one last time at the house that held so many memories. It was the house where Seth had carried her through the doorway after they returned form their honeymoon. It was where they had brought Rebecca home to the first time. It was in that back yard that the black lab Shadow was buried, along with countless goldfish.

"Seth," Molly said quietly, "Tell me we'll be okay in Charleston."

Seth looked lovingly at his wife. "I trust the new instructor at the YMCA MMA school, we trained together. I'm taking the old lead instructor's place at the dojang in Charleston, and I can sell my paintings just as easily in South Carolina as I can in Maryland."

"New scenery to paint, right?"

"Exactly. And you successfully transferred your CPA office. We found a good school for Rebecca, and she's got both of our social skills combined. I'm sure she'll be the new popular kid in no time."

Molly smiled and looked behind her at Rebecca who was buckled up still clutching Winslow. "It's not safe for her here, anyway."

"I know," Seth agreed.

Molly continued smiling. "I think our lives are about to change completely."

Seth's cell phone rang as he was Molly was speaking. Seth looked at the ID. "It's James." Seth answered with a frustrated role of his eyes. "Hello?"

"Hey, bro. Listen, have you guys left yet?"

"No, we're still in Rosewood, but we're in the car about to take off, why?"

"I know you think I'm crazy 'cause of the whole Silent Hill thing, but you have to trust me on this. On your way through Virginia, do whatever you can not to pass too close to that town."

Seth sighed. "What the hell are you talking about, James."

"Hi Uncle James!" Rebecca shouted from the back seat.

"Yeah, bro, tell her I said hi. Listen, that monster she dreams about is in Silent Hill. You can't go anywhere near that town or you'll never be rid of him, okay? It's a fucked up place, trust me."

"Okay, yeah, avoid Silent Hill. Got it. See ya, bro."

Seth hung up the phone and put it back in his shirt pocket. Seth turned his head around to face the back seat. "Rebecca, James says hi." He turned back to Molly. "Molly, look at the map and see if you can plan a rout around Silent Hill so we don't pass close by it. My brother is paranoid."

"It isn't on the map since the roads got blocked off," Molly answered, "but you can tell where it is if you know where to look. It's in the middle of this forest here." She pointed at the place on the map. "So," she reasoned, still pointing on the map, "All we have to do is take this exit here and keep on that interstate until we get into North Carolina and then get back on our original rout."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

Seth started the engine and shifted the car into drive. Seth sighed. "Time to start life over."

The old house went out of sight as they turned out of the culdesac and away from their old life. Molly was right. Their lives were about to change completely.


	4. Sacred Line

**Chapter Four**

**Sacred Line**

…_..._

_This line, that can't be broken  
This line, never will be crossed again._

_In time, will be forgiven  
This line, affected by the innocent._

_Running by another line  
When you cross the sacred line._

…_..._

It was dark by the time they reach the Virginia State line. Molly was looking at the map trying to make sure Seth didn't miss their exit, but she was beginning to fall asleep.

"I think it's time we stopped for the night," Molly said. "I'm starting to fall asleep."

"Me two," Seth agreed. "There's a hotel after a few miles once we take our exit. We'll stay there. Just don't let me miss it, or we might end up in freaking Haunted Hill."

"_Silent_ Hill, honey. You still think James is crazy, don't you."

"He lost his mind when Marry died and he never did find all the screws that fell loose." Seth let out an exhausted sigh. "Maybe he left them in Silent Hill."

Suddenly, a nervous whimper came from the back seat.

Molly turned her head to face Rebecca. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"I'm scared." Rebecca cried as she tightened her grip on Winslow.

"It's okay, we're almost to the-"

Rebecca interrupted and screamed.

Seth was startled and swerved, but quickly regained control of the wheel. "What the hell, Becky!"

"Didn't you see it?" Rebecca shrieked.

Molly shook her head. "No, baby, I didn't see anything. What was it?"

"It was a monster!"

Seth rolled his eyes. "Rebecca, it was just a shadow. You're tiered. Go to sleep. We're on our way to a hotel, okay."

"It wasn't a shadow," Rebecca insisted, "it was a monster! I saw it."

"Is it still there?" Molly asked.

"No."

"Then we're okay." Molly turned back around and almost immediately started falling asleep again. It wasn't long before Seth started to feel his eyes growing heavier as well.

Seth was almost asleep at the wheel when Rebecca screamed again. "There's another one! It's another monster!"

"I still don't see anything," Seth said.

"How can you not see it. You're driving! You're supposed to be paying attention! It was right-"

"Rebecca", Molly interrupted, "You're just seeing the shadows. They just look like monsters because you're tiered and nervous about everything that's been happening lately. Just close your eyes and try to sleep."

Rebecca screamed again. "NO! There's another one right up there!"

Seth and Molly both turned their heads toward where she was pointing, but they saw nothing.

Seth was beginning to lose his patience. "There's nothing there! For the last time Rebecca, close your eyes and-" Seth jerked his head to the left. "Shit!"

"What?" Molly and Rebecca both asked in unison.

"That was our motherfucking exit!"

"Seth, calm down," Molly comforted. "I'll find us another one." She took the map from the glove box and began to look for another exit.

Rebecca then began to scream uncontrollably and nonstop. "How can you not see them! Don't you see them! They're all over the place! They're everywhere!"

Molly tried to tune out her daughters relentless screams. "It looks like there's another exit on the right about thirty miles up ahead. Go ahead and get in the right-"

This time the interrupter was Seth. "Holly FUCK!"

"Do you see it _now_?" Rebecca cried.

Molly was confused. "See wha-" Molly's eyes widened and she joined her daughter screaming.

Right in the middle of the road was a monstrosity of a mutation. It was at least seven feet tall with a muscular man's body. But atop it's shoulders where a head should be was a metal pyramid shape. It dragged a giant bloody sword behind it as it ran frighteningly fast toward them.

"Hold on to something!" Seth warned. Just as the creature was about to reach them, Seth pulled the wheel to the left, sending their SUV crashing through the railings and off of what was almost a cliff as deep as the ditch was.

The last thing the three of them saw was the tree line at the bottom of the hill.

**Once again, men seem not to understand that YOU CAN DRIVE THROUGH GHOSTS!**


	5. Hometown

It's my understanding that no two people see the exact same thing or experience the town the exact same way when they enter Silent Hill. Keep this in mind from here on out.

**Chapter 5**

**Hometown**

…...

_Survive, you must have the will  
This movie doesn't end _

_the way we want all the time _

_Then he shouts at the moon  
"She's Gone!" and fear has overcome._

…...

When Seth and Molly woke up, the vehicle was surrounded by a thick fog that did not allow them to see more than a foot or so outside the car. Seth was the first to fully regain consciousness. He squinted his eyes several times before being able to open them completely. His forehead was bleeding from where he had hit the steering wheel and his neck and back were sore, but he was otherwise uninjured. Through the fog and what appeared at first glance to be snow, Seth saw a sigh in front of them that they had apparently collided with. The sign read "Welcome to Silent Hill."

"Well, fuck," Seth muttered under his breath. Then he heard Molly in the front passenger seat next to him. She groaned as if in pain, or perhaps just not ready to be woken up by her husband's profanity. "Molly!" Seth said almost shouting. He was now fully awake and fully aware of the dangerous situation they were now in.

Molly groaned again and tried to open her eyes. "Becky," Molly's voice was almost a whisper.

"Shit!" Seth exclaimed, "Becky, sweet heart, are you o-" Seth turned to check the back seat. His heart jumped through his ches; his eyes widened. A split second later he screamed.

"BECKY!"

In the back seat of the van was Rebecca's back pack, travel pillow, blanket, and Winslow. But Rebecca herself was gone.

Molly spun around in her seat. She clapped both hands over her mouth, but her scream was still piercing.

In a panick, Seth fumbled with his seatbel, taking several seconds to unbuckle is before he managed to free himself and push the door open. At once he felt the heavy fog and ash in the air trying to push his wiery body to the ground. He did not give in; at the top of his lungs he screamed…

"REBECCA!"

His voice did not echo or travel far. It died no sooner than it had escaped his mouth; his shout was mearly a dead grunt against the gray air. He shouted again to no avail.

By then Molly had escaped from the vehicle and joined Seth. She to tried desperatly to call for their daughter.

"BECKY!" Molly's voice also caried no wight and became a dead sound.

Molly burst in to a fit of histerical tears, gasping and trembling.

"Molly," Seth wrapped his arms around his wife and tried to comfort his her, but his voice shook as well as his entire body. "Molly, we can't panic, okay. We can't find Becky if we panic!"

Molly nodded eratically an gasped in a few deap breaths. After a few minutes she had calmed herself enough to think straight.

"Can you stand?" Seth asked Molly. She gave one sharp nod. Seth reluctantly released Molly and reached into the car under the driver's seat.

The back of the van popped open, startling Molly.

"We'll need what's back there," Seth stated.

"O-okay?"

"Look, James said that sadistic creature Becky dreams about is here." Seth pulled out the gun cases from the trunk. The couple owned several rifles and shotguns for hunting, handguns for recreation and self defense(they both had licences to conceal and cary), as well as a collection of swords and knives Seth used for his martial arts training. They hadn't trusted the movers with their weapons, so they put them all in the trunk and were bringing them to Charleston themselves. This had proved to be a very good idea.

Seth handed Molly the 12-guage shotgun as well as a pack containing thirty shells. "Go get our handguns out of the front," Seth practically ordered. Molly didn't hesitate and retrieved Seth's 9mm handgun from the consol and her own from the glove compartment.

"Here," Molly offered, handing Seth his gun, complete with full ten round magazine.

"Thanks," ge said dryly, and handed Molly an extra clip for ger gun, as well as her throwing knife belt.

"This is overkill, don't you think, honey?" Molly asked Seth.

"NO!" Seth turned to face Molly. "Our little girl is out here in this foggy shit along with whatever the fuck fan us the hell off the road. God knows what other kind of evil things are hiding out there. I'm not taking any chance, and neither are your. And neither of us are about to take chances with Rebecca."

Molly stood scocked and silent while she watched Seth sling his 308 rifle over his shoulder.

"We might want to split up to cover more ground," Molly sugested.

Sheth opened his mouth to protest, but stopped and nodded. "Good idea. We'll meat back at the van in one hour, with or without, Becky, to get our berrings."

Seth and Molly each looked at their cell phones. Both were dead.

"We'll it's a good thing we both wear watches."

Seth nodded. "Agreed."

"See you in an hour."

Seth leaned in and softly kissed Molly. "I love you."

"I love you, too."


	6. Hell's Frozen Rain

In this chapter we will begin seeing Alessa lurking around. Again, this is the version of Alessa from the movie, not games 1, 3, and O. Later (probably chapter 8) we get to see Dahlia. Again, this is movie Dahlia, not game Dahlia.

**Chapter 6**

**Hell's Frozen Rain**

_. . . . . . . . . ._

_And her cold voice _

_Sings a melody_

_Hear her sing_

_Hell's frozen Rain falls down_

. . . . . . . . . .

It was quite; _too_ quiet. _Silent _Hill defiantly lived up to its name. She could not even here her own footsteps. It was not a peaceful and calm sort of quiet. It was the heavy dead sort of quiet that let Molly hear her quickened heartbeat deafeningly loud in her own ears like the beat of a warriors drum.

She _was_ a warrior. She was marching through the desolate ash-covered streets of a town where deadly evil resonated from every crack and crevice armed and on a mission.

Every so often she would call her daughter's name.

"REBECCA!"

Her voice always seamed to be absorbed by the thick ash and fog that made it hard to see and even harder to breath. Something compelled her to glance down at her feet. Her black boots were caked in gray-white dust, and she was leaving footprints. She said a silent prayer in her heart that no one or no_thing_ followed the tracks and made its way to her.

Suddenly something made Molly freeze in her tracks. There was a sound somewhere of in the distance. Not just any sound, but a voice. A _child's_ voice.

"Rebecca," she thought out loud. She ran as fast as high heals would let her in the direction she thought the voice was coming from, hoping, _praying_, that the owner of that voice was her Becky.

As she ran the voice grew louder, and she could tell now that the child was singing. She could not make out any words or tell if there were any at all.

She could have run for seconds or hours before she turned a corner, stopped short and screamed. The road ended at a cliff. It was as if a section of the earth had been ripped out. Smoke, ash and heat rose out of the enormous crevice. Molly's body seamed to act on its own. Slowly she tiptoed towards the edge. She gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth to contain another scream. She might as well (or may very well) have been staring down into the depths of hell itself. There was fire God only knows how far down in the pit. It stretched as far as Molly could see, and something in the back of her mind and deep down in her gut told her that it was endless.

The singing was very close now; just feet to her right. She turned around and stared in shock. In a lot right next to the pit was a small park with a swing set, marry-go-round, and a slide- a slide that aimed right down into the pit. And sitting on top of the slide was a little girl. Molly had a fleeting thought that it was Rebecca. The girl had the same long dark hair, but it was hanging down in her face and looked as though it had never seen a brush. She was dressed in a blue collared dress and formerly white leggings with black shoes; defiantly _not_ the light blue skirt and frilly white shirt Rebecca had been dressed in.

Molly approached carefully, slowly pushing open the rusted gate sending a creaking sound that made her jump. But the girl seemed unaffected. She did not stop her melodic flow of monotonous alternating notes of "la la la la la." It occurred to Molly that this might be some sort of lullaby that the child was wordlessly singing.

"He...Hello?" Molly greeted the child nervously.

The child did not even look up or even seam no notice Molly was there. "La la la lalala la,"

"My name is Molly Sunderland. I'm looking for my daughter Rebecca."

The little girl stopped singing but did not acknowledge Molly.

"Hello? Can you here me?" Molly sighed in frustration when the child still did not answer or even look up. "What's your name?"

Finally, the little girl looked up and Molly's stomach lurched. The little girl's face, or what she could see of it past her stringy hair, was filthy and covered in streaks of black; her eyes were sunken and bloodshot.

The dirty child's black lips twisted into what should have been a smile. "Right now I'm Alessa."

Molly nodded slowly. "O-Okay Alessa. I'm looking for my daughter. Have you seen a little girl?" Once again the child remained silent. "She's about your age."

Alessa slowly and calmly shook her head.

Molly dropped her head in disappointment.

Alessa broke her silence. "They shouldn't have hurt her, you know."

Molly's head snapped back up and she stared into Alessa's glazed eyes. "Who hurt who?"

No answer.

"Who got hurt?"

Still no answer.

"Did someone hurt Rebecca? Answer Me!"

"It's okay," Alessa answered sweetly. Then her smile twisted sadistically and she cocked her head to the side. "She got her revenge. Didn't she?"

Molly couldn't explain where the sudden burst of sheer terror came from. Maybe it was the sweet venom of Aessa's voice. Maybe it was the deadness in her sunken eyes.

Maybe it was her own memories; memories of when she herself was around Alessa and Rebecca's age…

She shook her head vigorously trying to fling the memory away from her head and into the literal hellhole not five feet from her. It had been years sense she had thought about _that_. She had never even told Seth.

"I have to go now. Bye Molly!"

It took less than one second for Alessa to let go if the railing and slide down.

"NO!" Molly screamed, but it was too late.

Alessa slid down and fell into the abyss without a sound.

Molly's scream made up for Allesa's lack thereof. In terror she ran, not even knowing which was she was going, but hoping she was on her way back to the van. She looked down as she ran; trying to find the footprints that she realized had most likely been covered by falling ash by now.

She was panting and crying so much by the time she reached the van she did not even know where she was until she ran into the back drivers side door. She looked into the windows to see if Becky or Seth were inside.

Empty.

She checked her watch.

One hour and six minutes had passed sense she and Seth had split up.

She was sobbing and hyperventilating uncontrollably now. Molly was still gone. Seth was late. A little girl just went down a slide into a lake of fire and she was stranded in what her brother-in-law James had described as the embodiment of hell itself.

She collapsed on the ground and wept; her entire body shook with sobs she had no hope of controlling.

When she has cried herself out enough to form a coherent though, she checked her watch again.

Another half hour had passed.

Seth was still not there.

Molly forced herself to stand on week and trembling legs. If Seth was missing now too, she would have to find both her husband and her daughter on her own. With a determination born of what had to be pure instinct for survival, She set out in the direction Seth had gone over an hour and a half ago.

The silence was back. But she could here a little voice in the back of her mind over and over again repeating…

_She got her revenge. Didn't she?_

* * *

**Oh, and I probably didn't describe it very well, but he "lullaby" that Alessa is singing is meant to be the music box lullaby from the hotel lobby of SH 2. The song doesn't have actual words except for fan-written ones.**


End file.
